"They got plenty" (Cumberland Saga)

Evan threw down his hoe. “How is this not slavery!” he howled.

“What do you mean?” Blain asked.

It had been days since Blain had to deal with an outburst so he decided to treat it seriously. Besides, they were slowly clawing their way back to where Sarah said they should be in terms of planting. The rains had slowed everybody down but the extra manpower did come with some benefits.

“I don’t wanna be here. I don’t wanna be doing this. I ain’t getting paid. That is slavery” Evan said.

In a way, Evan had a point.

“No work. No food. You are eating, aren't ya?” Blain pointed out.

“But I am not eating THIS food” Evan retorted. “I am eating food Alice was going to be throwing out anyway.”

Blain didn’t point out that the scraps from the root-cellar were earmarked to be fed to the hogs and/or chickens, something he had learned on Sig's patio. Given Evan’s state-of-mind, it would not be heard well. He was eating "pig food".

“But you will be, come September” Blain pointed out.

“I don’t THINK so” Evan said, sarcastically.

Blain stopped what he was doing and gave Evan his full attention. “How do you figure?”

“I ain’t gonna be here” Evan said, confidently. “Dad is going to need to go back to the hospital and Mom is going to take him. We go back to St Louis.”

“Even if that doesn’t happen, me and Abe are going to figure out how to get back to St Louis in August at the latest” Evan concluded.

“So how are you going to live if you aren’t with your mom and dad?” Blain asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Abe is going to enroll in college and take out student loans. I will crash with him” Evan said. It all seemed very simple. “Then, when I turn 17 I will also go to college and live like a king.”

“You know those are loans, don’t you. You are expected to pay them back” Blain informed him. Blain could have brought up FAFSA and the tangled mess involved in getting loans but decided to keep it simple.

“Not as long as I keep going to school, I don’t” Evan shot back.

“So you are going to stay in school forever?” Blain asked.

“Yup. It will pay for my rent and food and transportation and there are always plenty of girls on college campuses” Evan said. He had it all figured out.

“What happens if you get expelled?” Blain asked.

“I will kill myself” Evan said, glibly.

“You know SOMEBODY is paying for you to go to school, don’t you?” Blain asked.

“Yeah, so…” Evan said.

“Where do you think that comes from?” Blain persisted.

“I dunno. Maybe the government prints it or maybe it is from taxes. I really don’t care” Evan said.

“It is from taxes” Blain said. “It comes from payroll taxes and from a tax on savings called ‘inflation’ that penalizes people who worked and didn’t spend all of their earnings.”

“Then they ought to get taxed. They got plenty” Evan said.

“So you think taxes are good?” Blain asked, marveling at how his perspective in life had flip-flopped from when HE was a young man with a very simple view of the universe.

“Absolutely!!! They got plenty and should be happy to share” Evan repeated with absolute confidence.

“Then consider what you are doing to be a tax. You got plenty of years ahead of you and you have plenty health and a back that is plenty strong enough to do this kind of work” Blain offered. "You should be happy to share!"

Evan kicked the hoe and went storming off.

Blain decided it was a good time to take a break. He had let his urge to argue get the better of him. And while he won the argument, Evan HAD brought us some good points.

***

Evan was stormily silent after lunch.

Blain was thoughtful. He had shared what happened with Sarah and she had mentioned that starting at 8, the children of Copperhead Cove were given a portion of a plot to grow whatever they wanted. The children were still expected to care for the family gardens first but then after their parents said they were ‘Done for the day’ the children could go care for their own plots. The size of the portion increased based on how well they cared for (mostly in pulling weeds) their personal plot.

When Evan’s body language showed that he had cooled down a little bit, Blain asked him “So if you could plant anything you wanted, what would it be?”

Evan didn’t even have to think. “Melons. I would plant melons and sugar cane. I miss sweet things.”

That night, at Sig’s patio, Blain brought up the events of the day and concluded “Sarah and I talked this over. Walter and Amira need every bit of garden planted to staples and can’t afford to risk any of it.”

Walter nodded in agreement. Even if they had a decent crop of corn and potatoes, they would be “tight” for food. There was no margin for experimenting.

Sig offered “Sugar cane doesn’t grow in Tennessee but melons sure do.”

“How good of a worker is Evan?” Roger asked.

“He is sometimes a little slow getting started but once he gets going, he has a lot of focus” Blain reported.

Then the conversation evolved into an extended round-robin about who had melon seeds, where they might be able to get better seeds, where melons had done best in the past. Once again, Blain was impressed by the amount of attention that went into the smallest details and how much energy was exerted behind the scenes to “save” a potentially wayward son.

Roger ended the half-hour of debate by saying “I think I have part of a plot that will work. Abe and I will knock-off early and meet you and Evan by the plot with the big, blue rock in the corner. Might as well get both of them involved.”

He concluded “I think it is time for Abe and Evan to learn about share-cropping.”